Community Plates: Fighting Hunger, Reducing Waste

Patch recently accompanied Community Plates' "food run" volunteer, Alison Sherman, on a food rescue mission in Norwalk.

Last Tuesday Sherman signed up online for an volunteer "run" that would take her - and a large bag of rescued loaves of bread - from Wave Hill Breads at 30 High St. in Norwalk to Open Door Shelter just down the way at 4 Merritt Street. 

"It's a great program," said Peggy Frank at Wave Hill, who packed up leftover loaves of bread. "We don't like to see our bread go to waste."

Sherman arrived at 4:30pm on the dot. "It's important that we're punctual and reliable," Sherman said. "When a person signs up for a run online, there are explicit instructions like 'drive around back and park by the brick wall and ring the bell.' Sometimes a seasoned runner will accompany a new runner."  

Sherman described the Norwalk-based non-profit as a grassroots organization with a simple method. "We're about community helping community. Neighbor helping neighbor," she said. 

Explaining that food rescue through Community Plates has been such a success in Fairfield County that the operation has expanded to three other cities: Albequerque, NM; Columbus, OH and New Haven, here in Connecticut, for a total of four sites. 

We're very reliable, accountable and we show up when we say we will," said Sherman. "We've found that restaurants and food professionals don't like to waste food. Nobody says no. They tell us that they like the idea of donating within their communities."

Community Plates has created, “GoRescue,” a technology that makes it possible for volunteers to sign up for a food rescue run online. Runners pick up excess fresh foods from restaurants and grocers and deliver it directly to partner agencies that serve hungry individuals. 

There are no warehouses and no expensive overhead. In fact, oftentimes, rescued food arrives on a hungry person's table within a half hour.

Since 2011, Community Plates has rescued the food equivalent to 2 million meals at a value of nearly $4 million. Their goal for the 2013-2014 food rescue season is to deliver 3 million meals to hungry individuals across an expanding marketplace.

Headquartered in Norwalk, Community Plates is always looking for volunteer food runners and organizations to donate food. 

For more information, visit the Community Plates website or check out the Community Plates Facebook page.